New radio data transmissions with low-density parity-check codes

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus, systems, architectures and interfaces for compressing hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback bits performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) receiving a transmit block (TB) including code block group (CBG) data are provided. The method includes receiving, by the WTRU, information associated with transmitting compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information, receiving, by the WTRU, a TB; determining, by the WTRU, a countdown downlink assignment index (CD_DAI) associated with the received TB; generating, by the WTRU, the compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information by compressing HARQ-ACK feedback bits associated with the received TB; and on condition that: (1) the CD_DAI is equal to zero or (2) the WTRU determines to provide feedback information, transmitting the compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to the field of communications and, moreparticularly, to methods, apparatus, systems, architectures andinterfaces for communications in an advanced or next generation wirelesscommunication system, including communications carried out using a newradio and/or new radio access technology and involve transmission ofreference signals used for determining channel state information.

SUMMARY

Methods, apparatus, systems, architectures and interfaces forcompressing hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK)feedback bits performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)receiving a transmit block (TB) including code block group (CBG) dataare provided. The method includes receiving, by the WTRU, informationassociated with transmitting compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information;receiving, by the WTRU, a TB; on condition that a countdown downlinkassignment index (CD_DAI) associated with the received TB is equal tozero, compressing, by the WTRU, HARQ-ACK feedback bits so as to generatethe compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information; and transmitting thecompressed HARQ-ACK feedback information.

Methods, apparatus, systems, architectures and interfaces forretransmission performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)transmitting a transmit block (TB) including code block group (CBG) dataare provided. The method includes receiving, by the WTRU, compressedHARQ-ACK feedback information; determining a set of correctly receivedTBs satisfying TB={TB_m|C1_m=1}; determining a set of incorrectlyreceived TBs satisfying TB={TB_m|C2_m=0}; retransmitting TBs included inthe set of incorrectly received TBs; and retransmitting all CBGssatisfying {CBG_(mn)|C1 _(m)=0 and C3 _(n)=0}.

A representative device has circuitry, including any of a processor,memory, a receiver, and a transmitter; the representative device beingfor receiving a transmit block (TB) including code block group (CBG)data and compressing hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement(HARQ-ACK) feedback bits; the representative device being configured toreceive information associated with transmitting compressed HARQ-ACKfeedback information; receive a TB; on condition that a countdowndownlink assignment index (CD_DAI) associated with the received TB isequal to zero, compress HARQ-ACK feedback bits so as to generate thecompressed HARQ-ACK feedback information; and transmit the compressedHARQ-ACK feedback information.

A representative device has circuitry, including any of a processor,memory, a receiver, and a transmitter; the representative device beingfor retransmission performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)transmitting a transmit block (TB) including code block group (CBG)data, the WTRU configured to receive compressed HARQ-ACK feedbackinformation; determine a set of correctly received TBs satisfyingTB={TB_m|C1_m=1}; determine a set of incorrectly received TBs satisfyingTB={TB_m|C2_m=0}; retransmit TBs included in the set of incorrectlyreceived TBs; and retransmit all CBGs satisfying {CBG_(mn)|C1 _(m)=0 andC3 _(n)=0}.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Furthermore, like reference numerals in the figures indicate likeelements, and wherein:

FIG. 1A is a system diagram illustrating an example communicationssystem in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example wirelesstransmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communicationssystem illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment;

FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating an example radio access network(RAN) and an example core network (CN) that may be used within thecommunications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment;

FIG. 1D is a system diagram illustrating a further example RAN and afurther example CN that may be used within the communications systemillustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a TBS determination procedure accordingto embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method fora receiver according toembodiments;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a CBG based multi-step retransmissionaccording to embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating BG dependent CBG grouping according toembodiments;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a HARQ-ACK codebook design according toembodiments;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating HARQ-ACK codebook compression accordingto embodiments;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a retransmission method according toembodiments;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a retransmission method according toembodiments;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a group based HARQ-ACK codebookprocedure according to embodiments;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a HARQ-ACK codebook with a countdown(CD) downlink assignment index (DAI) according to embodiments; and

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a UL CBG transmission procedureaccording to embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A detailed description of illustrative embodiments may now be describedwith reference to the figures. However, while the present invention maybe described in connection with representative embodiments, it is notlimited thereto and it is to be understood that other embodiments may beused or modifications and additions may be made to the describedembodiments for performing the same function of the present inventionwithout deviating therefrom.

Although the representative embodiments are generally shown hereafterusing wireless network architectures, any number of different networkarchitectures may be used including networks with wired componentsand/or wireless components, for example.

The design of the next generation of wireless systems is currentlyunderway in the academia, industry, regulatory and standardizationbodies. The IMT-2020 Vision sets the framework and overall objectivesfor the development of the next generation of wireless systems. Toaddress an anticipated increase in wireless data traffic, demand forhigher data rates, low latency and massive connectivity, the IMT-2020Vision defines the main use cases that drive fifth generation (5G)design requirements: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliablelow latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine typecommunications (mMTC). These use cases have widely different targets onpeak data rates, latency, spectrum efficiency, and mobility.

Although the IMT-2020 Vision indicates not all of the key capabilitiesare equally important for a given use case, it is important to buildflexibility in the 5G designs, to enable meeting expected use-casespecific requirements and support multiple services. In this regard, 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) is conducting research anddevelopment for a new radio and/or new radio access technology(collectively referred to as “NR”) for the advanced or next generation(e.g., 5G) wireless communication system in consideration of the mainuse cases and a variety of other/different applications along with theirvarious needs and deployment scenarios and attendant (e.g., mandatedspecific) performance requirements thereof.

There are several deployment scenarios, including indoor hotspot, denseurban, rural, urban macro, high speed, etc., that 3GPP has discussedand/or defined for standards. Also, several use cases are defined, forexample Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Massive Machine TypeCommunications (mMTC) and Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications(URLLC). Different use cases may focus on different requirements, suchas higher data rate, higher spectrum efficiency, low power and higherenergy efficiency, lower latency and higher reliability, etc.Communications in these different use cases may involve determining aTransport Block Size (TBS). For example, for Long Term Evolution (LTE)deployment, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) table may contains aMCS index and a corresponding modulation order and a TBS index. The TBSindex, together with the number of Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), maybe used to determine the transport block size from a TBS table in a LTEdeployment.

Example Networks for Implementation of the Embodiments

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example communications system 100in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. Thecommunications system 100 may be a multiple access system that providescontent, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., tomultiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may enablemultiple wireless users to access such content through the sharing ofsystem resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, thecommunications systems 100 may employ one or more channel accessmethods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time divisionmultiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA),orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tailunique-word DFT-Spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM(UW-OFDM), resource block-filtered OFDM, filter bank multicarrier(FBMC), and the like.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may include wirelesstransmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, a RAN104/113, a CN 106/115, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108,the Internet 110, and other networks 112, though it will be appreciatedthat the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, basestations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c, 102 d may be any type of device configured to operateand/or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, any of which may be referred to as a“station” and/or a “STA”, may be configured to transmit and/or receivewireless signals and may include a user equipment (UE), a mobilestation, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, apager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), asmartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor,a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watchor other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, amedical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrialdevice and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devicesoperating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chaincontexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating oncommercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and 102 d may be interchangeably referred toas a UE.

The communications systems 100 may also include a base station 114 aand/or a base station 114 b. Each of the base stations 114 a, 114 b maybe any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at leastone of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d to facilitate access to oneor more communication networks, such as the CN 106/115, the Internet110, and/or the other networks 112. By way of example, the base stations114 a, 114 b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNodeB, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, a gNB, a NR NodeB, a site controller,an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. While the basestations 114 a, 114 b are each depicted as a single element, it will beappreciated that the base stations 114 a, 114 b may include any numberof interconnected base stations and/or network elements.

The base station 114 a may be part of the RAN 104/113, which may alsoinclude other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such asa base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relaynodes, etc. The base station 114 a and/or the base station 114 b may beconfigured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals on one or morecarrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown).These frequencies may be in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or acombination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may providecoverage for a wireless service to a specific geographical area that maybe relatively fixed or that may change over time. The cell may furtherbe divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with thebase station 114 a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in oneembodiment, the base station 114 a may include three transceivers, i.e.,one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and mayutilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell. For example,beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desiredspatial directions.

The base stations 114 a, 114 b may communicate with one or more of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d over an air interface 116, which may beany suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF),microwave, centimeter wave, micrometer wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet(UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be establishedusing any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may bea multiple access system and may employ one or more channel accessschemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. Forexample, the base station 114 a in the RAN 104/113 and the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c may implement a radio technology such as Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), whichmay establish the air interface 115/116/117 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA).WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed PacketAccess (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-SpeedDownlink (DL) Packet Access (HSDPA) and/or High-Speed UL Packet Access(HSUPA).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS TerrestrialRadio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 usingLong Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and/orLTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR Radio Access, which mayestablish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR).

In an embodiment, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, thebase station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may implement LTEradio access and NR radio access together, for instance using dualconnectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c may be characterized by multiple types of radioaccess technologies and/or transmissions sent to/from multiple types ofbase stations (e.g., a eNB and a gNB).

In other embodiments, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e.,Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1×, CDMA2000 EV-DO,Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), InterimStandard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM),Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and thelike.

The base station 114 b in FIG. 1A may be a wireless router, Home Node B,Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize any suitableRAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area, such asa place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrialfacility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a roadway, and thelike. In one embodiment, the base station 114 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish awireless local area network (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station114 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d may implement a radio technology suchas IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Inyet another embodiment, the base station 114 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE,LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR etc.) to establish a picocell or femtocell. Asshown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114 b may have a direct connection tothe Internet 110. Thus, the base station 114 b may not be required toaccess the Internet 110 via the CN 106/115.

The RAN 104/113 may be in communication with the CN 106/115, which maybe any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications,and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more ofthe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d. The data may have varying qualityof service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughputrequirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements,reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobilityrequirements, and the like. The CN 106/115 may provide call control,billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling,Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or performhigh-level security functions, such as user authentication. Although notshown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104/113 and/or theCN 106/115 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANsthat employ the same RAT as the RAN 104/113 or a different RAT. Forexample, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104/113, which may beutilizing a NR radio technology, the CN 106/115 may also be incommunication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology.

The CN 106/115 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c, 102 d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and/or the othernetworks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephonenetworks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks anddevices that use common communication protocols, such as thetransmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and/orthe internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. Thenetworks 112 may include wired and/or wireless communications networksowned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, thenetworks 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, whichmay employ the same RAT as the RAN 104/113 or a different RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d in thecommunications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d may include multiple transceivers forcommunicating with different wireless networks over different wirelesslinks). For example, the WTRU 102 c shown in FIG. 1A may be configuredto communicate with the base station 114 a, which may employ acellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114 b, whichmay employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shownin FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120,a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126,a display/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132,a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136,and/or other peripherals 138, among others. It will be appreciated thatthe WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elementswhile remaining consistent with an embodiment.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 1Bdepicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and thetransceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, thetransmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmitand/or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the transmit/receiveelement 122 may be an emitter/detector configured to transmit and/orreceive IR, UV, or visible light signals, for example. In yet anotherembodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured totransmit and/or receive both RF and light signals. It will beappreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured totransmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.

Although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted in FIG. 1B as asingle element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit/receiveelements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMOtechnology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two ormore transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) fortransmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that areto be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulatethe signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. Asnoted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, thetransceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11, forexample.

The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receiveuser input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/orthe display/touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) displayunit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 mayaccess information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory,such as the non-removable memory 130 and/or the removable memory 132.The non-removable memory 130 may include random-access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storagedevice. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identitymodule (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card,and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may accessinformation from, and store data in, memory that is not physicallylocated on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (notshown).

The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and maybe configured to distribute and/or control the power to the othercomponents in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitabledevice for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 mayinclude one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd),nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion),etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which maybe configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude andlatitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In additionto, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from abase station (e.g., base stations 114 a, 114 b) and/or determine itslocation based on the timing of the signals being received from two ormore nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 mayacquire location information by way of any suitablelocation-determination method while remaining consistent with anembodiment.

The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, whichmay include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provideadditional features, functionality and/or wired or wirelessconnectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include anaccelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera(for photographs and/or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, avibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, aBluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digitalmusic player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internetbrowser, a Virtual Reality and/or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) device, anactivity tracker, and the like. The peripherals 138 may include one ormore sensors, the sensors may be one or more of a gyroscope, anaccelerometer, a hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientationsensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor; ageolocation sensor; an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, amagnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and/ora humidity sensor.

The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission andreception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated withparticular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) anddownlink (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous.The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit toreduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via eitherhardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., aseparate processor (not shown) or via processor 118). In an embodiment,the WRTU 102 may include a half-duplex radio for which transmission andreception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated withparticular subframes for either the UL (e.g., for transmission) or thedownlink (e.g., for reception)).

FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ anE-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communicationwith the CN 106.

The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c, though it will beappreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment,the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may implement MIMO technology. Thus,the eNode-B 160 a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmitwireless signals to, and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

Each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may be associated with aparticular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radioresource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of usersin the UL and/or DL, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160 b, 160 c may communicate with one another over an X2 interface.

The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1C may include a mobility management entity(MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN)gateway (or PGW) 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depictedas part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elementsmay be owned and/or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 cin the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. Forexample, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, bearer activation/deactivation, selecting aparticular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c, and the like. The MME 162 may provide a control planefunction for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown)that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and/or WCDMA.

The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 cin the RAN 104 via the S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route andforward user data packets to/from the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c. The SGW164 may perform other functions, such as anchoring user planes duringinter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when DL data is available forthe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, managing and storing contexts of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the like.

The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, such as theInternet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102b, 102 c and IP-enabled devices.

The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. Forexample, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c withaccess to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitatecommunications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and traditionalland-line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include,or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem(IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and thePSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c with access to the other networks 112, which may include otherwired and/or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by otherservice providers.

Although the WTRU is described in FIGS. 1A-1D as a wireless terminal, itis contemplated that in certain representative embodiments that such aterminal may use (e.g., temporarily or permanently) wired communicationinterfaces with the communication network.

In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

A WLAN in Infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode may have an AccessPoint (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated withthe AP. The AP may have an access or an interface to a DistributionSystem (DS) or another type of wired/wireless network that carriestraffic in to and/or out of the BSS. Traffic to STAs that originatesfrom outside the BSS may arrive through the AP and may be delivered tothe STAs. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSSmay be sent to the AP to be delivered to respective destinations.Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP, forexample, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP and the AP maydeliver the traffic to the destination STA. The traffic between STAswithin a BSS may be considered and/or referred to as peer-to-peertraffic. The peer-to-peer traffic may be sent between (e.g., directlybetween) the source and destination STAs with a direct link setup (DLS).In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use an 802.11e DLS oran 802.11z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an Independent BSS (IBSS)mode may not have an AP, and the STAs (e.g., all of the STAs) within orusing the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS modeof communication may sometimes be referred to herein as an “ad-hoc” modeof communication.

When using the 802.11ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similarmode of operations, the AP may transmit a beacon on a fixed channel,such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width(e.g., 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a dynamically set width via signaling.The primary channel may be the operating channel of the BSS and may beused by the STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In certainrepresentative embodiments, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with CollisionAvoidance (CSMA/CA) may be implemented, for example in in 802.11systems. For CSMA/CA, the STAs (e.g., every STA), including the AP, maysense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed/detectedand/or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA mayback off. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any giventime in a given BSS.

High Throughput (HT) STAs may use a 40 MHz wide channel forcommunication, for example, via a combination of the primary 20 MHzchannel with an adjacent or nonadjacent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHzwide channel.

Very High Throughput (VHT) STAs may support 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz,and/or 160 MHz wide channels. The 40 MHz, and/or 80 MHz, channels may beformed by combining contiguous 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel may beformed by combining 8 contiguous 20 MHz channels, or by combining twonon-contiguous 80 MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, the data, after channelencoding, may be passed through a segment parser that may divide thedata into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing,and time domain processing, may be done on each stream separately. Thestreams may be mapped on to the two 80 MHz channels, and the data may betransmitted by a transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA,the above described operation for the 80+80 configuration may bereversed, and the combined data may be sent to the Medium Access Control(MAC).

Sub 1 GHz modes of operation are supported by 802.11af and 802.11ah. Thechannel operating bandwidths, and carriers, are reduced in 802.11af and802.11ah relative to those used in 802.11n, and 802.11ac. 802.11afsupports 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV White Space(TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11ah supports 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, and16 MHz bandwidths using non-TVWS spectrum. According to a representativeembodiment, 802.11ah may support Meter Type Control/Machine-TypeCommunications, such as MTC devices in a macro coverage area. MTCdevices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilitiesincluding support for (e.g., only support for) certain and/or limitedbandwidths. The MTC devices may include a battery with a battery lifeabove a threshold (e.g., to maintain a very long battery life).

WLAN systems, which may support multiple channels, and channelbandwidths, such as 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11ah, include achannel which may be designated as the primary channel. The primarychannel may have a bandwidth equal to the largest common operatingbandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primarychannel may be set and/or limited by a STA, from among all STAs inoperating in a BSS, which supports the smallest bandwidth operatingmode. In the example of 802.11ah, the primary channel may be 1 MHz widefor STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) a 1MHz mode, even if the AP, and other STAs in the BSS support 2 MHz, 4MHz, 8 MHz, 16 MHz, and/or other channel bandwidth operating modes.Carrier sensing and/or Network Allocation Vector (NAV) settings maydepend on the status of the primary channel. If the primary channel isbusy, for example, due to a STA (which supports only a 1 MHz operatingmode), transmitting to the AP, the entire available frequency bands maybe considered busy even though a majority of the frequency bands remainsidle and may be available.

In the United States, the available frequency bands, which may be usedby 802.11ah, are from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. In Korea, the availablefrequency bands are from 917.5 MHz to 923.5 MHz. In Japan, the availablefrequency bands are from 916.5 MHz to 927.5 MHz. The total bandwidthavailable for 802.11ah is 6 MHz to 26 MHz depending on the country code.

FIG. 1D is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 113 may employ an NRradio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c overthe air interface 116. The RAN 113 may also be in communication with theCN 115.

The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c, though it will beappreciated that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs whileremaining consistent with an embodiment. The gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 cmay each include one or more transceivers for communicating with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment,the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may implement MIMO technology. For example,gNBs 180 a, 108 b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and/orreceive signals from the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c. Thus, the gNB 180 a,for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to,and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102 a. In an embodiment,the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may implement carrier aggregationtechnology. For example, the gNB 180 a may transmit multiple componentcarriers to the WTRU 102 a (not shown). A subset of these componentcarriers may be on unlicensed spectrum while the remaining componentcarriers may be on licensed spectrum. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180 a,180 b, 180 c may implement Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology.For example, WTRU 102 a may receive coordinated transmissions from gNB180 a and gNB 180 b (and/or gNB 180 c).

The WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may communicate with gNBs 180 a, 180 b,180 c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. Forexample, the OFDM symbol spacing and/or OFDM subcarrier spacing may varyfor different transmissions, different cells, and/or different portionsof the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c maycommunicate with gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c using subframe or transmissiontime intervals (TTIs) of various or scalable lengths (e.g., containingvarying number of OFDM symbols and/or lasting varying lengths ofabsolute time).

The gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may be configured to communicate with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c in a standalone configuration and/or anon-standalone configuration. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c may communicate with gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c withoutalso accessing other RANs (e.g., such as eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c).In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may utilizeone or more of gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c as a mobility anchor point. Inthe standalone configuration, WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may communicatewith gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c using signals in an unlicensed band. In anon-standalone configuration WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may communicatewith/connect to gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c while also communicatingwith/connecting to another RAN such as eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c. Forexample, WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may implement DC principles tocommunicate with one or more gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c and one or moreeNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c substantially simultaneously. In thenon-standalone configuration, eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may serve asa mobility anchor for WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and gNBs 180 a, 180 b,180 c may provide additional coverage and/or throughput for servicingWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c.

Each of the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may be associated with a particularcell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resourcemanagement decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the ULand/or DL, support of network slicing, dual connectivity, interworkingbetween NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards User PlaneFunction (UPF) 184 a, 184 b, routing of control plane informationtowards Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 182 a, 182 b andthe like. As shown in FIG. 1D, the gNBs 180 a, 180 b, 180 c maycommunicate with one another over an Xn interface.

The CN 115 shown in FIG. 1D may include at least one AMF 182 a, 182 b,at least one UPF 184 a,184 b, at least one Session Management Function(SMF) 183 a, 183 b, and possibly a Data Network (DN) 185 a, 185 b. Whileeach of the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 115, itwill be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/oroperated by an entity other than the CN operator.

The AMF 182 a, 182 b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180 a,180 b, 180 c in the RAN 113 via an N2 interface and may serve as acontrol node. For example, the AMF 182 a, 182 b may be responsible forauthenticating users of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, support fornetwork slicing (e.g., handling of different PDU sessions with differentrequirements), selecting a particular SMF 183 a, 183 b, management ofthe registration area, termination of NAS signaling, mobilitymanagement, and the like. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182 a,182 b in order to customize CN support for WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 cbased on the types of services being utilized WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c.For example, different network slices may be established for differentuse cases such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC)access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB)access, services for machine type communication (MTC) access, and/or thelike. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switchingbetween the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radiotechnologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and/or non-3GPP accesstechnologies such as WiFi.

The SMF 183 a, 183 b may be connected to an AMF 182 a, 182 b in the CN115 via an N11 interface. The SMF 183 a, 183 b may also be connected toa UPF 184 a, 184 b in the CN 115 via an N4 interface. The SMF 183 a, 183b may select and control the UPF 184 a, 184 b and configure the routingof traffic through the UPF 184 a, 184 b. The SMF 183 a, 183 b mayperform other functions, such as managing and allocating UE IP address,managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providingdownlink data notifications, and the like. A PDU session type may beIP-based, non-IP based, Ethernet-based, and the like.

The UPF 184 a, 184 b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180 a,180 b, 180 c in the RAN 113 via an N3 interface, which may provide theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, suchas the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c and IP-enabled devices. The UPF 184, 184 b may performother functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing userplane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user planeQoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, and thelike.

The CN 115 may facilitate communications with other networks. Forexample, the CN 115 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway(e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as aninterface between the CN 115 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 115may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to the othernetworks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networksthat are owned and/or operated by other service providers. In oneembodiment, the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c may be connected to a localData Network (DN) 185 a, 185 b through the UPF 184 a, 184 b via the N3interface to the UPF 184 a, 184 b and an N6 interface between the UPF184 a, 184 b and the DN 185 a, 185 b.

In view of FIGS. 1A-1D, and the corresponding description of FIGS.1A-1D, one or more, or all, of the functions described herein withregard to one or more of: WTRU 102 a-d, Base Station 114 a-b, eNode-B160 a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNB 180 a-c, AMF 182 a-b, UPF 184a-b, SMF 183 a-b, DN 185 a-b, and/or any other device(s) describedherein, may be performed by one or more emulation devices (not shown).The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulateone or more, or all, of the functions described herein. For example, theemulation devices may be used to test other devices and/or to simulatenetwork and/or WTRU functions.

The emulation devices may be designed to implement one or more tests ofother devices in a lab environment and/or in an operator networkenvironment. For example, the one or more emulation devices may performthe one or more, or all, functions while being fully or partiallyimplemented and/or deployed as part of a wired and/or wirelesscommunication network in order to test other devices within thecommunication network. The one or more emulation devices may perform theone or more, or all, functions while being temporarilyimplemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communicationnetwork. The emulation device may be directly coupled to another devicefor purposes of testing and/or may performing testing using over-the-airwireless communications.

The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, includingall, functions while not being implemented/deployed as part of a wiredand/or wireless communication network. For example, the emulationdevices may be utilized in a testing scenario in a testing laboratoryand/or a non-deployed (e.g., testing) wired and/or wirelesscommunication network in order to implement testing of one or morecomponents. The one or more emulation devices may be test equipment.Direct RF coupling and/or wireless communications via RF circuitry(e.g., which may include one or more antennas) may be used by theemulation devices to transmit and/or receive data.

In the case of New Radio (NR) deployment, an modulation and codingscheme (MCS) table may define a MCS index and a corresponding modulationorder and target code rate (e.g., 1024). The target code rate may beprovided directly in the MCS table. In contrast to an LTE deploymentthat uses a table, in the case of NR, the TBS size may be calculated(e.g. mainly calculated) from a formula. That is, the TBS size may becalculated according to the following agreement of 3GPP:

-   -   Calculate an “intermediate” number of information bits        N_(RE)·ν·Q_(m)·R where        -   ν is the number of layers,        -   Q_(m) is the modulation order, obtained from the MCS index        -   R is the code rate, obtained from the MCS index        -   N_(RE) is number of resource elements        -   N_(RE)=Y*# PRBs scheduled    -   When determining N_(RE) (number of REs) within a slot        -   Determine X=12*#OFDM symbols scheduled—Xd— Xoh            -   Xd=#REs for DMRS per PRB in the scheduled duration            -   Xoh=accounts for overhead from CSI-RS, CORESET, etc. One                value for UL, one for DL.                -   Xoh is semi-statically determined        -   Quantize X into one of a predefined set of values, resulting            in Y            -   [8] values                -   Should allow for reasonable accuracy for all                    transmission durations                -   May depend on the number of scheduled symbols            -   FFS: floor, ceiling or some other quantization            -   Note: quantization may not be needed            -   FFS: Quantization step should ensure the same TB size                can be obtained between transmission and retransmission,                irrespective of the number of layers used for the                retransmission. otherwise Xd has to be independent of                the number of layers    -   Obtain the actual TB size from the intermediate number of        information bits according to the channel coding decisions

In the case of NR, two Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) base graphs (BGs)may be supported. For example, BG 1 may have a size of 46×68 and BG 2may have a size of 42×52. In such example, BG 1 may be for high coderates and large block lengths, while BG 2 may be for low code rates andsmall block lengths. In the case of NR, there is agreement that BG2 maybe used in a case of any of: 1) a code rate R≤¼, 2) a code block size(CBS) ≤308 bits, or 3) a CBS≤3840 bits and a code rate R≤⅔; else, BG1 isused.

In a case of NR wherein the maximum CBS is used, the CBS may depend onthe segmentation of a transport block (TB). For example, the maximum CBSfor BG1 is 8448 bits, and the maximum CBS for BG2 is 3840 bits. The coderate R may be used for the selection of a maximum CBS from among theoptions of 8448 bits and 3840 bits. For example, if R≤¼, then a maximumCBS of 3840 bits is selected, otherwise, a maximum CBS of 8448 bits isselected. In the case of NR, the TBS determination may depend on thedetailed structure of LDPC codes.

In the case of NR, TBS determination may not rely directly on a TBStable. In the case of NR, a large number of PRBs (up to 275 PRBs) may besupported and various possible OFDM symbols/slots ([1, 14]) may be used,which may result in a large TBS table. In the case of NR, the TBSdetermination may be based on a formula. However, the formula-based TBScalculation has low resolutions on the TBS step sizes. Hence, theintermediate TBS needs to be adjusted to obtain an actual TBS. Thisprocess may depend on the LDPC code structure.

Further, in the case of NR, selection between the two LDPC BGs maydepend on the coding rate and the TBS. The coding rate may be differentin an initial transmission and retransmissions. In a case where areceiver does not receive downlink control information (DCI) of aninitial transmission, the receiver may determine an LDPC BG according tothe coding rate of the retransmissions. However, in a further case wherethe coding rate of the initial transmission and retransmission aredifferent, the receiver may use a wrong LDPC BGs for its decoding.

Transport Block Size Determination for New Radio

According to embodiments, a TBS size may be determined according to thefollowing operations. A first operation may be to determine a serviceassociated with data and to check a TBS table (for example, a designed,determined, configured, etc., TBS table) for these services. Forexample, in a case where the data belongs to ultra-reliable low latencycommunications (URLLC), voice over IP (VoIP), or other such serviceand/or special service, the designed TBS table is checked for theseservices. According to embodiments, a TBS table may be composed of MCSindex I_(MCS) and number of PRB N_(PRB). Note that in LTE, the TBS tableis composed of TBS index I_(TBS) and number of PRB N_(PRB).

According to embodiments, a second operation may be to determine anintermediate (or temporary) TBS size, which may be denoted byTBS_(temp). It has been agreed, by 3GPP, that TBS_(temp) may becalculated according to Formula 1:

TBS_(temp) =R·Q _(m) ·ν·N _(RE)  [Formula 1].

In the Formula 1 calculation of TBS_temp, the values for the code rate Rand the modulation order Q_m are obtained directly from the MCS table,and the MCS index and the number of layers v is carried by and/or knownfrom DCI. The number of resource elements N_RE is equal to the number ofscheduled PRBs multiplied by the quantized number of REs (Y) within aslot. That is, N_RE=Y·# Scheduled PRBs. According to embodiments, thevalue of Y may depend on the actual number of REs (X) within a slot,which may be determined according to Formula 2:

X=12*#OFDM symbols/slot-X_d−X_oh  [Formula 2],

wherein X_(d) is the number of REs for DMRS per PRB in the scheduledduration, and X_(oh) accounts for overhead from CSI-RS, CORESET, etc.According to embodiments, the value of X_(oh) may be semi-staticallydetermined and may be different for UL and DL, and the values of X_(d)and X_(oh) may change between first transmission and re-transmissions.

According to embodiments, the actual number of REs (X) may be quantized(Y) according to a variety of options. For example, at least twodifferent ways/options of quantizing from X to Y are possible: (1) donot apply the quantization, and instead the quantization may beperformed (e.g., applied) in Step 2 when determining the final TBS; and(2) apply floor based quantization, so that Y is always smaller than X.According to embodiments, quantization according to option two mayensure that the TBS size is not more than the data capacity carried bythe available resources. For example, this could avoid additionalpuncturing at the stage of resource mapping or rate matching.

According to embodiments, a third operation may be to determine the TBSsize, e.g., the actual/final TBS size, which may be denoted byTBS_(final) According to embodiments, the quantization of TBS_(temp) toTBS_(final) may be to byte align TBS_(final). For example, to ensurethat TBS_(final) is byte aligned, a TB may be equally partitioned tosegments without additional zero-padding, and the quantization steps mayincrease according to the TBS. According to embodiments, TBS_(final) maybe calculated according to Formula 3:

TBS final = ⌈ TBS temp QS ⌉ · QS - TB CRC , [ Formula ⁢ 3 ]

wherein QS is the quantization step, and TB_(CRC) is the length of TBlevel CRC. According to embodiments, the ceiling operation in Formula 3may be modified to any of a floor operation or a round operation.According to embodiments, TB_(CRC) may be equal to 16 bits ifTBS_(final) is less than or equal to 3824, and otherwise, TB_(CRC) maybe equal to 24 bits. According to embodiments, TB CRC may be determinedaccording to Formula 4:

$\begin{matrix}{{TB}_{CRC} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{16,} & {{TBS}_{temp} \leq 3840} \\{24,} & {{TBS}_{temp} > {3840}}\end{matrix}.} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}4} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

According to embodiments, the value of the quantization step QS maydepend on the value of TBS_(temp). For example, a larger TBS_(temp)value may result in and/or be associated with a larger value of QS.According to embodiments, QS may be calculated according to thefollowing options.

According to embodiments, QS may be calculated using a first optionshown in Formula 5:

QS=8·C  [Formula 5],

wherein C is the number of CB segments for this TB. The value of C maydepend on TBS_(temp) and the code rate R from the MCS table. Accordingto embodiments, the value of C may be determined according to Formula 6:

$\begin{matrix} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}6} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$ $C = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{1,} & {{{{if}\ \left( {{{{R \leq \frac{1}{4}}\&}{TBS}_{temp}} \leq {3840}} \right)}\ {{or}\ \left( {{{{R > \frac{1}{4}}\ \&}\ {TBS}_{temp}} \leq {8448}} \right)}}\ ,} \\{\left\lceil \frac{{TBS}_{temp}}{3816} \right\rceil,} & {{{{{{{if}\ R} \leq \frac{1}{4}}\&}{TBS}_{temp}} > {3840}},} \\{\left\lceil \frac{{TBD}_{temp}}{8424} \right\rceil,} & {{{{{{if}\ R} > \frac{1}{4}}\ \&}\ {TBS}_{temp}} > {8448.}}\end{matrix} \right.$

According to embodiments, TBS_(final) may be determined by using (e.g.,inserting, substituting) the results of Formulas 4 and 6 in Formula 3.According to embodiments, QS may be calculated using a second optionshown in Formula 7:

QS=lcm(8,C)  [Formula 7],

wherein lcm(8, C) is the least common multiple of 8 and C, and C iscalculated according to Formula 6.

According to embodiments, QS may be calculated using a third option: QSis a function of R and TBS_(temp), wherein QS monotonically increaseswith TBS_(temp) at a given R. According to embodiments, in a case havinglow code rates (for example, no more than ¼), BG2 may be used, and QSmay be smaller than a QS used for BG1. A QS may be selected as amultiple of 8 so that a TBS maybe byte-aligned, e.g., in a subsequentoperation. According to embodiments, a QS may have any size, one or morecertain sizes, a range of sizes, etc. According to embodiments, theremay be a case where a smallest QS size may be 8 bits, and/or a largestQS size may be 4096 bits or 8192 bits. According to embodiments, such acase may support a temporary TBS size of and/or up to 702240 bits, bysetting, ν=2, R=0.95, Q_(m)=8, N_(RE)=46200, wherein there are 3300subcarriers and 14 symbol/slot.

According to embodiments, in a case where R>¼, QS may be determinedaccording to Formula 8:

$\begin{matrix}{{QS} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{8,\ {{TBS}_{temp} \leq {512}}} \\{{16},\ {{512} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {1024}}} \\{{32},\ {{1024} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {2048}}} \\{{64},\ {{2048} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {4096}}} \\{{128},\ {{4096} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {8192}}} \\{{256},\ {{8192} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {16384}}} \\{{512},\ {{16384} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {32768}}} \\{{1024},\ {{32768} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {65536}}} \\{{2048},\ {{65536} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq {131072}}} \\{{4096},\ {{TBS}_{temp} > {131072}}}\end{matrix},} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}8} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

and in a case where R≤¼′ QS may be determined according to Formula 9:

$\begin{matrix}{{QS} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{8,\ {{TBS}_{temp} \leq {256}}} \\{{16},\ {{256} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 512}} \\{{32},\ {{512} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 1024}} \\{{64},\ {{1024} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 2048}} \\{{128},\ {{2048} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 4096}} \\{{256},\ {{4096} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 8192}} \\{{512},\ {{8192} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 16384}} \\{{1024},\ {{16384} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 32768}} \\{{2048},\ {{32768} < {TBS}_{temp} \leq 65536}} \\{{4096},\ {{TBS}_{temp} > 65536}}\end{matrix}.} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}9} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

According to embodiments, in the above calculations, the TBS_(temp) mayinclude a TB level CRC. According to other embodiments using differentcalculations, there may be a case where TBS_(temp) may not include a TBlevel CRC. In such a case, Formulas 3 and 6 may be respectively adjustedas shown below in Formulas 10 and 11:

TBS final = ⌈ TBS temp - TB CRC QS ⌉ · QS - TB CRC ; [ Formula ⁢ 10 ]$\begin{matrix}{C = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{1,} & {\begin{matrix}{{if}\ \left( {{{{R \leq \frac{1}{4}}\&}{TBS}_{temp}} \leq 3824} \right)\ {or}} \\{\left( {{{{R > \frac{1}{4}}\ \&}\ {TBS}_{temp}} \leq 8424} \right)\ ,}\end{matrix}\ } \\{\left\lceil \frac{{TBS}_{temp} + 24}{3816} \right\rceil,} & {{{{{{{if}\ R} \leq \frac{1}{4}}\&}{TBS}_{temp}} > 3824},} \\{\left\lceil \frac{{TBD}_{temp} + 24}{8424} \right\rceil,} & {{{{{{if}\ R} > \frac{1}{4}}\ \&}\ {TBS}_{temp}} > 8424.}\end{matrix};} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}11} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

In the above described calculations, there may be an error in a case oftwo conditions: (1) TBS_(temp) is less (e.g., slightly less) than 3840,and (2) TBS_(final) is above 3824. The first condition may result inTB_(CRC)=16 bits in Formula 4, and the second condition may result inTB_(CRC)=24 bits. According to embodiments, the resulting gap of 8 bitsmay be adjusted in TBS_(final) For example, there may be the followingadjustment shown in Formula 12:

-   -   If TBS_(temp)≤3840 and TBS_(final)>3824 according to Formula 3,

then TBS_(final)=TBS_(final)−8  [Formula 12].

According to embodiments, there may be a case where, for any of BG1 orBG2, in order to reach a 1% or 10% block error rate (BLER) gap fordifferent MCS levels, a signal to noise ratio (SNR) gap may varyaccording to and/or along with an information block size. For example,the SNR gap may be much larger between two adjacent MCSs (e.g., twoneighboring MCS rows) in the MCS table when the information block sizeis small. Thus, according to embodiments, in a case where TBS is small,a look-up table may be applied to derive a TBS, for example, rather thanusing a formula. Using a look-up table to derive a TBS may ensure asimilar spectrum efficiency gap between two neighboring TBSs.

According to embodiments, for a WTRU supporting only BG 1 or only BG 2,the TBS may be handled differently. For example, there may be a casewhere certain WTRUs (e.g., low-end WTRUs) support only one BG (either BG1 or BG 2), which may be configured via RRC signaling. According toembodiments, in such a case, the TBS may be derived using the abovedescribed two-step procedure. For example, a first step to deriveTBS_(temp) may be the same as described above. In the calculation ofTBS_(final), Formulas 3 or 10 may be used. Further, according toembodiments, the quantization step QS may be obtained in a (e.g.,slightly) different way than as described above.

According to embodiments, in a case where QS may be calculated using thefirst option shown in Formula 5, the value of C may depend on (e.g., maybe determined according to) TBS_(temp), the code rate R from MCS table,and which one of BG 1 or BG 2 is supported by a WTRU. According toembodiments, in a case where only BG 1 is supported, then C may bedetermined according to Formula 13:

$\begin{matrix}{C = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{1,} & {{TBS}_{temp} \leq {8448}} \\{\left\lceil \frac{{TBS}_{temp}}{8424} \right\rceil,} & {{TBS}_{temp} > {8448}}\end{matrix}.} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}13} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

According to embodiments, TBS_(final) may be determined by using (e.g.,inserting, substituting) the results of Formulas 4 and 13 in Formula 3.According to embodiments, in a case where only BG 2 is supported, then Cmay be determined according to Formula 14:

$\begin{matrix}{C = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{1,} & {{TBS}_{temp} \leq {3840}} \\{\left\lceil \frac{{TBS}_{temp}}{3816} \right\rceil,} & {{TBS}_{temp} > {3840}}\end{matrix}.} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}14} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

According to embodiments, TBS_(final) may be determined by using (e.g.,inserting, substituting) the results of Formulas 4 and 14 in Formula 3.

According to embodiments, in a case where QS may be calculated using thesecond option shown in Formula 7, the value of C may be calculatedaccording to Formula 13 or 14 depending on which BG is supported by theWTRU. According to embodiments, in a case where QS may be calculatedusing the third option, QS may be a monotonically increasing function ofTBS_(temp). According to embodiments, in a case where only BG 1 issupported, then QS may be calculated using Formula 8 or a similarformula; and in a case where only BG2 is supported, then QS may becalculated using Formula 9 or a similar formula.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a TBS determination procedure accordingto embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 2 , operation 201 may be to determine a serviceassociated with data. For example, for a certain data, operation 201 maybe to determine if the data belongs to (e.g., is associated with, isfor, etc.) one or more special services, such as VoIP or URLLC data. Ifthe data belongs to and/or is for a special service, operation 202 maybe to determine a TBS by applying a procedure different than the abovediscussed formula (e.g., a look-up table, or a different formula basedprocedure). Otherwise, in the case where the data does not belong to aspecial service, 203 operation may be to calculate the temporary TBSusing a certain formula as described above. For example, if a WTRUsupports both BGs, then operation 204 may be to apply the Formulas 3 or10 to calculate the final TBS. As a further example, if a WTRU supportsonly a single BG, then operation 205 may be to apply a differentcalculation formula as described above (see Formulas 8, 9, 13, and 14).

LDPC Base Graph Selection Signaling

According to embodiments, LDPC base graph selection may depend on thecode rate R of an initial transmission. For example, in a case where thecode rate R is less than or equal to ¼, then BG2 may always be selected.Further, in a case where the code rate R is larger than ¼ and the TBS islarger than 292 bits (=308-16 bits), then BG2 may be used, for example,if the code rate R is less than ⅔. In a case where the code rate R islarger than ¼ and the TBS is smaller than 292 bits, then BG2 may alwaysbe used.

According to embodiments, the code rate R may be adjusted between thefirst transmission and subsequent transmissions. For example, the coderate R may be adjusted between the first transmission and aretransmission according to (e.g., depending on) the channel conditions.According to embodiments, there may be a case where a first transmissionhas a code rate less than ¼ and BG2 is used. In such a case, a receiver(e.g., a WTRU) may not receive a downlink control channel (e.g., thePDCCH) and may miss the first transmission. Further, in such a case, atransmitter (e.g., a gNB) may transmit a NACK. For example, a gNB mayobtain a downlink transmission (DTX) opportunity in order to transmit aNACK associated with an error. For a retransmission, the transmitter mayadjust the MCS value such that the code rate is larger than ¼. In such acase, since the WTRU may not receive the first PDCCH and may not beaware of the initial code rate, the WTRU may assume that BG1 is used(e.g., the WTRU may be configured to use BG1) based on the DCIinformation of the retransmission (e.g., R>¼). This may cause a mismatchbetween the respective BG selections of the transmitter and receiver.

According to embodiments, a BG may be indicated in DCI. For example, DCImay include information indicating a BG, such as a BG selected by anetwork. According to embodiments, DCI may include informationindicating a BG selection decision, for example, according to thefollowing options. According to embodiments, a BG selection decision maybe explicitly indicated in DCI, for example, using an additional bitcontained in DCI, specifying the BG selection. For example, a bit valueof 0 may indicate that BG1 is used, while a bit value of 1 may indicatethat BG2 is used. According to embodiments, a BG selection decision maybe implicitly indicated in DCI, for example, the BG selection indicationmay be implicitly indicated by the bits of a MCS field in DCI.

In the case of an LTE deployment, for an initial transmission an MCSindex may be selected from a range of 0 to 28, and a redundancy version(RV) may be set as 0. In the case of an LTE re-transmission, the MCSindex may be selected from a range of 29 to 31. In such a case, theremay be 5 bits in the DCI/UCI for the 32 possible values of the MCSindex. Further, for a retransmitted PDSCH, the MCS index may bedetermined according to a modulation order, for example, rather than theRV. For a retransmitted PUSCH, the MCS index may be determined accordingto the RV, for example, rather than the modulation order.

According to embodiments, in the case of NR, for a retransmittedNR-PDSCH, 2 bits may be used (e.g., only 2 bits may be used) for the MCSindex in DCI, wherein the MCS index may depend on the modulation order.According to embodiments, in the case where only 2 bits are used forindicating the MCS index, 3 bits in DCI field for the MCS index may beunused. That is, 3 bits from the MCS index in DCI may be saved.According to embodiments, 3 bits in the DCI, e.g., the saved 3 bits fromthe MCS index, may be used for the increased RVs. For example, theincreased RVs may be used based on the assumption that the RV field forthe initial transmission may be restricted to 2 bits. According toembodiments, the possible RVs for the initial transmission may beselected as any of 0, 1, 2, and 3.

According to embodiments, there may be a case of a first transmissionhaving a MCS index of 10010 and a RV of 00. In such a case, the MCSindex may be 18 and modulation order may be 6. According to embodiments,a re-transmission may have a MCS index of 10 and a RV of 00001. In sucha case, the modulation order may be 6 and the RV may be 1. According toembodiments, a DCI payload size may be kept constant while a number ofsupported RVs may be increased. For example, in a case of performingdynamic switching of the MCS index field and RV field in DCI betweeninitial transmissions and retransmissions, the DCI payload size may bekept constant, while the number of supported RVs may be increased from 4(e.g., 2 bits) to 32 (e.g., 5 bits). According to embodiments, dynamicswitching of the MCS index field in DCI between initial transmission andretransmission may support up to 32 RVs.

According to embodiments, in the case of NR, the number of supported RVmay be less than 32. In such a case, 3 bits (e.g., the saved bits) ofthe MCS fields in retransmissions may be used for indicating CBGinformation. That is, according to embodiments, the saved bits may beused to indicate any of: an actual CBG number less than a configured CBGnumber, an actual CBG number indication, etc. According to embodiments,the features and operations described above with respect to DCI may beapplied to uplink control information (UCI).

Code Book Group (CBG) Based HARQ

3GPP has discussed code block group (CBG) level Cyclic Redundancy Check(CRC), and has agreed that CBG-based transmission with single/multi-bitHARQ-ACK feedback may be supported in Release-15 (Rel-15), with thecharacteristics of: (1) only allow CBG based (re)-transmission for thesame TB of a HARQ process; (2) a CBG can include all CB of a TBregardless of the size of the TB; (3) a CBG can include one CB; (4) CBGgranularity is configurable.

In a case where a WTRU is configured with: (1) carrier aggregation, (2)adaptive timing K1, and (3) CBG based transmission, a HARQ-ACK payloadmay be large and may have variable sizes depending on the number ofconfigured and/or scheduled PDSCH transmissions and CBG configurations.In such a case, a WTRU may need to feedback multiple sets of CBGHARQ-ACK in one PUCCH in one slot. Thus, there is a need for operationsand methods that may efficiently perform HARQ-ACK transmission in thecase of HARQ-ACK multiplexing and/or bundling for multiple TBs.

Further, in the case of NR, CBG is a newly adopted concept. According toembodiments, in the case of CBG based HARQ retransmission, a fractionalpart of a TB may be retransmitted to achieve better spectrum efficiency.According to embodiments, TB level signaling and CBG level signaling maybe used together for CBG based HARQ retransmission.

Efficient HARQ-ACK Codebook Design

According to embodiments, there may be a CBG based multi-stepretransmission procedure. In a case of a good link adaptation scheme, aBLER (e.g., a target BLER) may be expected to be around 10%. In such acase further having a TB with up to 8 CBGs, a BLER may be higher, thatis, the chance to have one or two CBGs in error may be higher. Inanother case, the entire TB may be lost, for example, due to change ofchannel. According to embodiments, there may be a retransmission schemeincluding retransmission of any of: (1) one or more CBGs, and (2) theentire TB. For example, such retransmission may reduce DCI and ULHARQ-ACK overhead in a DL case, and may reduce DCI and DL HARQ-ACKoverhead in a UL case. According to embodiments, a retransmission sizemay be semi-static. For example, a retransmission size may be any of aTB size or one CBG size.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method for a receiver according toembodiments.

According to embodiments, a method may be performed by a receiver, forexample, a WTRU receiving a DL transmission, as shown by the operationsillustrated in FIG. 3 . According to embodiments, at operation 301, aWTRU may receive a new transmission including a TB having N CBGs. Atoperation 302, a WTRU may decode a (e.g., each) CBG and may record(e.g., respective) CBG level detection results. According toembodiments, the record may have N bits and a bit may indicate whether aCBG may be decoded. For example, each of the N bits may indicate whethera certain (e.g., respective, corresponding, etc.) CBG may be decodedsuccessfully.

At operation 303, a WTRU may determine the number of CBGs that haveerror(s) (e.g., CBGs received with errors, CBGs in error, etc.).According to embodiments, a WTRU may determine the number of CBGs inerror according to a value, such as a threshold. For example, a WTRU maydetermine whether a minor or a major amount of CBGs are in error.According to embodiments, a WTRU may determine whether a minor or majoramount of CBGs are in error by comparing number of corrupted CBGs withN/2.

According to embodiments, in a case where a major amount of CBGs are inerror (e.g., the number of corrupted CBGs>N/2, or greater than anysuitable value) a WTRU may send a HARQ-ACK using a TB levelacknowledgement. According to embodiments, the HARQ-ACK may be anacknowledgement, such as a new type of acknowledgement, having a bitindicating (e.g., only indicating) whether a TB level acknowledgement isincluded. According to embodiments, the HARQ-ACK may be a fall back TBlevel acknowledgement, for example, a legacy TB level acknowledgement.According to embodiments, a TB level acknowledgement may be used toindicate (e.g., to configure, to command, to require, etc.) a TB levelretransmission.

According to embodiments, in a case where a major amount of CBGs are inerror (e.g., the number of corrupted CBGs>N/2, or greater than anysuitable value), a WTRU may receive a retransmission having DCIindicating that a transmission (e.g., a current transmission) is aretransmission. For example, a DCI may indicate a retransmission byusing a toggled new data indicator (NDI) or a fixed NDI, or any othersimilar and/or suitable type of signaling. According to embodiments, DCImay indicate that any of a part of a TB or an entire TB isretransmitted.

According to embodiments, at operation 304, in a case where a minoramount of CBGs are in error (e.g., the number of corrupted CBGs N/2, orless than any suitable value), a WTRU may send a HARQ-ACK using a CBGlevel acknowledgement. According to embodiments, the HARQ-ACK may be anew type of acknowledgement including a bit (e.g., one bit) indicatinginclusion of any or both of a CBG level acknowledgement and a TB levelacknowledgement. According to embodiments, the HARQ-ACK may be anothernew type of acknowledgement having a bit (e.g., one bit) indicating anyor both of that a CBG level acknowledgement is included and that no TBlevel acknowledgement is included. According to embodiments, a WTRU mayhave, may be configured with, and/or may receive information, forexample, using high level signals such as RRC signaling, indicatingwhether any or both of a CBG level acknowledgement and/or a TB levelacknowledgement is included in an acknowledgement. For example, in acase where a WTRU is configured, via RRC signaling, with informationindicating that a TB level acknowledgement is included in a HARQ-ACK,there may be no need for a bit included in the HARQ-ARQ to indicatesuch.

According to embodiments, a CBG level acknowledgement may be a codedacknowledgement, for example, rather than a bitmap. For example, a CBGindex may be used to indicate that a corresponding CBG may be in errorand/or that a retransmission may be required. According to embodiments anumber of bits used for a CBG level HARQ-ACK may be fixed to a ceiling,for example, a ceiling of log 2(N_(MAX)), wherein N_(MAX) may be aconfigured (e.g., predefined, predetermined, signaled) number of CBGs,such as a maximum number of configured CBGs.

According to embodiments, a HARQ-ACK may indicate any number of CBGsthat are in error. For example, a HARQ-ACK may indicate that the numberof CBGs in error are more than 1. There may be a case where the numberof configured CBGs is 8. According to embodiments, in a further case ofa bitmap type of HARQ-ACK, 8 bits may be used to indicate the receivedCBG status. According to embodiments, in a case where the HARQ-ACKindicates that 1 or 2 CBGs are in error (e.g. only indicates that one ortwo CBGs have errors), three bits may be used to indicate a CBG havingan error. For example, only 3 bits may be used per errored CBG.According to embodiments, in such a case, up to 6 bits may be used forthe HARQ-ACK. According to embodiments, an additional bit (e.g. one bit)may be included to indicate whether the number of errored CBGs is 1 or2.

According to embodiments, at operation 304, in a case where a minoramount of CBGs are in error (e.g., the number of corrupted CBGs N/2, orto any suitable value), a WTRU may receive a retransmission for whichDCI may indicate that such is a retransmission. For example, aretransmission may be indicated by any of a toggled NDI, a fixed NDI, orother type of signaling. According to embodiments, DCI may indicate thata certain CBG is retransmitted. For example, DCI may indicate which CBGis retransmitted. According to embodiments, a CBG index may be used.According to embodiments, the number of bits for a CBG-level HARQ-ACKmay be fixed to ceiling, for example, log 2(N_(MAX)).

According to embodiments, at operation 305, for example, after receptionof a retransmission, a receiver, e.g., a WTRU, may determine whether aTB is received correctly (e.g., without error) from a transmitter, suchas a gNB. For example, a WTRU may determine whether a TB is successfullydetected by checking one or more CRC for any of: (1) one or more of theCBs, or (2) the TB CRC. According to embodiments, in a case where a TBis successfully detected, the receiver, e.g., the WTRU, may transmit aTB-level ACK to the transmitter, e.g., the gNB.

According to embodiments, in a case where one or more CBs is in error, aWTRU may update and record the CBG level detection results, and the WTRUmay again perform (e.g., go to, return to, etc.) operation 303.According to embodiments, in a case where all (e.g., each) CB CRCpassed, but a TB CRC failed, the WTRU may send a TB-level NAK, and theWTRU may determine whether a minor or major amount of CBGs are in error,as discussed above with respect to operation 303.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a CBG based multi-step retransmissionaccording to embodiments.

According to embodiments, there may be a retransmission scheme includingCBG level ACKs/NACKs for a receiver, e.g. a WTRU, and a transmitter,e.g., a gNB, as illustrated in FIG. 4 .

Referring to FIG. 4 , a TB may have 8 CBGs. According to embodiments, afirst transmission 401 from the gNB may include DCI indicating that this(e.g., the first transmission) may be a new TB, for example, using a NDIor other signaling(s). According to embodiments the gNB may transmit theTB, for example, after transmitting the DCI.

According to embodiments, a WTRU may determine that a minor number ofCBGs are in error. For example, according to embodiments, there may be acase where a WTRU detects that less than 4 CBGs are received in error,and the WTRU may record its CBG level acknowledgements. For example, theWTRU may store, save, record, etc. information associated and/orindicating which CBGs have errors and which CBGs are correctly detectedand/or received. In such a case, the WTRU may have (e.g., may record) aCBG level acknowledgement bitmap of [AANNAAAA], which indicates thatCBGs 2 and 3 are in error from among CBGs 0-7 (for example, the letter“A” represents an ACK, and the letter “N” represents a NACK). Accordingto embodiments, the WTRU may send an acknowledgement 402 including anyof a CBG level coded acknowledgement and a TB level acknowledgement.According to embodiments, a CBG level acknowledgement may be encoded toincluded information indicating a CBG index, for example, instead ofincluding a bitmap indicating CBGs. According to embodiments, a TB levelacknowledgement may be optional.

According to embodiments, the CBG level acknowledgement may be (e.g.,encoded using) 3 bits to indicate which CBG may be (e.g., commanded tobe, required to be, etc.) retransmitted. For example, a CBG coded ACK of‘010’ may indicate that CBG 2 is to be retransmitted. According toembodiments, the gNB may retransmit CBG 2 403 (e.g., only retransmit CBG2) and may set DCI to indicate a retransmission. For example, a CBGtransmit indication (CBGTI) may be ‘010’, which may indicate that theretransmission includes CBG 2. According to embodiments, the WTRU mayreceive (e.g., correctly receive) the retransmitted CBG 2, and mayupdate its recorded CBG level acknowledgement bitmap from [AANNAAAA] to[AAANAAAA]. According to embodiments, the WTRU may send (e.g., another)acknowledgement 404 to the gNB to request retransmission of CBG 3.According to embodiments, the gNB may retransmit CBG 3 405 with DCIindicating a retransmission and with a CBGTI of ‘011’, for example, toindicate that the retransmission carries CBG 3. According toembodiments, the WTRU may detect (e.g., successfully detect) CBG 3 andmay update the record of (e.g., the WTRU's recorded) CBG levelacknowledgement bitmap from [AAANAAAA] to [AAAAAAAA]. According toembodiments, the WTRU may determine (e.g., check) the TB level CRC, andif all CRCs passed, the WTRU may send an TB level acknowledgement 406 tothe gNB.

According to embodiments, the WTRU may determine that a major number ofCBGs are in error. For example, there may be a case where the WTRUdetects more than 4 CBGs are in error. According to embodiments, theWTRU may record (e.g., store) its CBG level acknowledgements. Forexample, referring to FIG. 4 , after gNB transmission 407, the WTRU mayhave (e.g., may record) a CBG level acknowledgement bitmap of[AANNNNNN], which indicates that CBG 0 and 1 are detected (e.g.,successfully detected) and that the rest of the CBGs (CBG 2 through CBG7) are in error. According to embodiments, the WTRU may send a TB levelacknowledgement 408 to request a TB level retransmission. According toembodiments, the gNB may retransmit the TB 409 (e.g., the entire TB) andmay set DCI to indicate that the TB is for a retransmission. Accordingto embodiments, there may be a case where the WTRU receives theretransmitted TB in which (e.g., only) CBG 3 is in error. In such acase, the WTRU may update its recorded CBG level acknowledgement bitmapfrom [AANNNNNN] to [AAANAAAA]. In this case, the WTRU may determine thata minor number of CBGs are in error and may request retransmission ofsingle CBG. According to embodiments, the WTRU may send (e.g., another)acknowledgement 410 to the gNB to request retransmission of CBG 3.According to embodiments, the gNB may retransmit CBG 3 411 with DCIinformation indicating a retransmission and with a CBGTI of ‘011’, forexample, to indicate that the retransmission is for (e.g., carries) CBG3. According to embodiments, the WTRU may detect CBG 3 and may updateits recorded CBG level acknowledgement bitmap from [AAANAAAA] to[AAAAAAAA]. According to embodiments, the WTRU may determine the TBlevel CRC, and if all CRCs passed, the WTRU may send a TB levelacknowledgement 412 to the gNB.

Base Graph Dependent CBG Grouping

According to embodiments, in the case of NR LDPC design, a LDPC paritycheck matrix may be selected from among two LDPC base graphs (BGs).According to embodiments, a LDPC code block size may be variable, forexample, based on a BG selection procedure. There may be a case wherethe LDPC CB size of BG 1 is larger than the LDPC CB size of BG 2.Further, a number of scheduled CBGs may impact both or any of DL and ULsignaling, for example, when a dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook is used.According to embodiments, a CBG grouping procedure may (e.g., need to)consider the BG selection, or in other words, may depend on the BGselection procedure. According to embodiments, with a BG dependent CBGgrouping procedure, CBGs with BG 1 may contain more CBs than the CBGswith BG 2.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating BG dependent CBG grouping according toembodiments. A TB may have a number of CBs, for example, a number of C.According to embodiments, a WTRU may determine that the BG to be used issignaled in DCI and/or is determined by an LDPC encoding procedure.According to embodiments, in a case where BG 1 is used, the WTRU maydetermine a number of CBGs according to Formula 15:

N _(HARQ-ACK) ^(CBG/TB)=min(N _(HARQ-ACK) ^(CBG/TB,max) ,C)  [Formula15],

wherein N_(HARQ-ACK) ^(CBG/TB,max) may be the maximum number of CBGs forgenerating HARQ-ACK information bits for a TB reception when the PDSCHincludes one or two transport blocks.

According to embodiments, in a case where BG 2 is used, the WTRU maydetermine a lesser number of CBGs than the number of CBGs for the BG 1scenario. According to embodiments, in the case where BG 2 is used, thenumber of CBGs may be determined according to Formula 16:

N _(HARQ-ACK) ^(CBG/TB)=min(N _(HARQ-ACK) ^(CBG/TB,max),ƒ(C))  [Formula16],

wherein ƒ(C)=C/2, or ƒ(C)=└C/2┘, or ƒ(C)=┌C/2┐ or ƒ(C)=round(C/2), andwherein, the ƒ( ) function may be modified with other functions.

HARQ-ACK Codebook Design

In some cases, a single PUCCH or PDCCH may carry HARQ-ACKs for multipletransport blocks. According to embodiments, to reduce HARQ-ACK feedbackoverhead, while maintaining (e.g., certain) transmission reliability,multiple HARQ-ACK codebook schemes may be supported and configurable.According to embodiments, HARQ-ACK codebook scheme selection may beperformed and signaled using higher layer signaling, such as RRCsignaling. According to embodiments, codebook scheme selection may beperformed at a per transmission basis or level, and signaling may becarried in control signaling, such as DCI and/or UCI etc. According toembodiments, the selection may be implementation based or otherwisespecified. According to embodiments, the selection of a codebook schememay be made according to certain criteria, for example, short termstatistics of a channel, long term statistics of a channel, co-channelinterference, interference from other cells, etc.

According to embodiments, a traffic type may be considered or used whenperforming HARQ-ACK codebook selection. For example, a traffic type witha low delay/jitter requirement may use a HARQ-ACK codebook with a highcompression ratio. According to embodiments, in a case where a HARQ-ACKcodebook may not be sufficient due to a high compression ratio, atransmitter may perform a retransmission in a certain way. For example,the transmitter may perform a retransmission in conservative way byretransmitting all the CBGs which may be in error. In such a case,retransmission overhead may be heavy but control overhead may be small.According to embodiments, traffic with a high delay/jitter requirementmay use a HARQ-ACK codebook with low compression ratio. According toembodiments, in such a case, a HARQ-ACK codebook may carry accurateHARQ-ACK information at a CBG level, and the transmitter may retransmitone or more corrupted CBGs. In such a case, for example, retransmissionoverhead may be small while control overhead (e.g., UCI and/or DCI) maybe large. According to embodiments, a compression ratio of a HARQ-ACKcodebook may be defined as shown in Formula 17:

$\begin{matrix}{{R_{comp}^{{HARQ} - {ACK}} = \frac{N_{{HARQ} - {ACK}} - N_{coded}}{N_{{HARQ} - {ACK}}}},} & \left\lbrack {{Formula}17} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

wherein N_(HARQ-ACK) is the total number of uncoded/uncompressedHARQ-ACK bits to be carried in a single UCI or DCI. According toembodiments, in a case where UCI or DCI includes HARQ-ACKs for K TBs andeach TB may have M CBGs, then the N_(HARQ-ACK)=MK. N_(coded) is thenumber of bits carried in UCI or DCI. According to embodiments,normally, N_(coded)≤N_(HARQ-ACK).

According to embodiments, two HARQ-ACK codebook schemes may beconfigured (e.g., predefined). According to embodiments, signaling,including any of higher layer signaling or per transmission basedsignaling, may be used to indicate which codebook scheme may be used.According to embodiments, a first option may be to use full sizefeedback with CBG level HARQ-ACKs, with or without including TB levelHARQ-ACKs. According to embodiments, with the first option, largeHARQ-ACK signaling overhead may be needed (e.g., required), however, CBGlevel efficient retransmission may be achieved. According toembodiments, a second option may be to use TB level HARQ-ACK with a TBbundled CBG HARQ-ACK. According to embodiments, with the second option,limited and fixed size HARQ-ACK overhead may be utilized, however,retransmission may carry un-necessary CBGs. According to embodiments,the second option may be for a case having periodical UL transmissions,where the same physical resources are used for all the TBs and may alsobe for a case having a large number of CBGs per TB.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a HARQ-ACK codebook design according toembodiments.

FIG. 6 shows a HARQ-ACK codebook design based on an encoding procedureof the second option discussed above. According to embodiments, a device(e.g., a receiver, a WTRU, a transmitter, a gNB) may transmit (e.g.,feedback) HARQ-ACK information for 4 TBs in one UCI or DCI, whereinmaximum number of CBGs per TB may be 8. The table of FIG. 6 illustratesthe decoding results for each CBG of a TB. According to embodiments, ashaded part of the table may be recorded directly based on the decodingresults. According to embodiments, a value of 1 may indicate that theCBG_(i) in TB_(j) is correctly decoded or may indicate that nothing istransmitted on that CBG, while a value of 0 may indicate that theCBG_(i) in TB_(j) is not correctly decoded. Here we have i∈{0, 1, . . ., 7} and j∈{0, . . . , 3}, which may indicate that CBG 5 in TB 1 and CBG3 in TB 3 have errors. According to embodiments, based on suchinformation, the device may derive any of: (1) TB HARQ-ACK: if all ofthe CBGs in the TB (row wise in the table) are correctly decoded and TBCRC is passed, the TB HARQ-ACK bit may be set to 1, otherwise it may beset to 0; and (2) TB bundled CBG HARQ-ACK: for each column in the table,an AND operation may be applied. In other words, for column i, ifCBG_(i) for TB0 to TB3 are correctly decoded with value 1, then the TBbundled CBG HARQ-ACK bit i may be set to 1, otherwise it may be set to0.

According to embodiments, in the UCI or DCI, only TB HARQ-ACK bits andTB bundled CBG HARQ-ACK bits may be feedback. According to embodiments,a device which receives the HARQ-ACK codebook may determine theretransmission accordingly. For example, such a device may determine(e.g., check) the TB HARQ-ACK bits and may locate the values of 0. Asshown in FIG. 6 , TB 1 and TB 3 have a 0 for the TB HARQ-ACK. In such acase, the device may determine (e.g., check) TB bundled CBG HARQ-ACKbits and may locate the CBGs with value 0. As shown in FIG. 6 , CBG 3and CBG 5 have values of 0. According to embodiments, the device mayretransmit CBG 3 and CBG 5 for TB 1 and TB 3. According to embodiments,four corrupted CBGs may be retransmitted. According to embodiments,other variations of codebook design may be developed based on the abovediscussed concepts.

According to embodiments, a group based bundling mechanism may be used.For example, with reference to FIG. 6 , TB 0 to TB 3 may be bundledtogether to derive TB bundled CBG HARQ-ACK bits. According toembodiments, group based bundling mechanisms may be used, for example,based on any of: channel assignment, interference condition, spatialmultiplexing condition, and traffic types. According to embodiments, agroup based bundling mechanism may request additional signaling toindicate the group. For example, for DL transmission, a HARQ-ACK groupindex may be included in DCI that carries DL control information.According to embodiments, a HARQ-ACK group index may be included in UCIthat carries uplink acknowledgement.

According to embodiments, a DL procedure may be performed according tothe following operations. According to embodiments, a WTRU may receive aDL data transmission with one or more code words (CWs). According toembodiments, each CW may have any of the following control information:(1) a HARQ-ACK group index, for example, this index may indicate whichHARQ-ACK group the TB or CW belongs to; (2) a counter downlinkassignment indicator (DAI), which may also be referred to as a countdown(CD) DAI, or CD_DAI, and for example, this field may indicate theaccumulative number of PDSCH receptions in the HARQ-ACK group; or (3) atotal DAI, for example, this field may indicate the total number ofPDSCHs in the HARQ-ACK group.

According to embodiments, a WTRU may decode the CW and keep (e.g.,record, store, etc.) the CBG level decoding results (for example, if CBGbase transmission may be supported) with respect to a correspondingHARQ-ACK group. According to embodiments, a WTRU may determine whetherthe counter DAI in the HARQ-ACK group is equal to the total DAI for thegroup (or equal to total DAI-1, if the counter DAI starts from 0).According to embodiments, in a case where the WTRU does not receive anyvalid data transmission during a predefined or predetermined maximummonitoring period, the WTRU may prepare an acknowledgement for theHARQ-ACK group.

According to embodiments, a WTRU may determine whether an option 1codebook or an option 2 codebook is used by checking any of higher layersignaling or per transmission signaling. In the case of the option 2codebook, the WTRU may derive TB HARQ-ACK bits and TB bundled CBGHARQ-ACK bits based on the decoding results recorded for the HARQ-ACKgroup. According to embodiments, a PUCCH may carry the HARQ-ACK codebookand a HARQ-ACK group indication may be included. According toembodiments, with this procedure, the counter DAI and total DAI may bedefined for each HARQ-ACK group and further. According to embodiments,the total DAIs for different HARQ-ACK groups may be different.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a group based HARQ-ACK codebookprocedure according to embodiments.

As illustrated in FIG. 7 , two HARQ-ACK groups may be used. According toembodiments, a first DL transmission associated with a WTRU may be inslot 2 with two CWs. For the first CW, TB 1 may be transmitted, aHARQ-ACK group index may be set to 1, a counter DAI may be set to 0, anda total DAI may be set to 4. For the second CW, TB 2 may be transmitted,a HARQ-ACK group index may be set to 2 (for example, to indicate thatthe two spatial streams belong to different HARQ-ACK groups), a counterDAI may be set to 0, and a total DAI may be set to 3. However, thepresent disclosure is not limited there to, and a total DAI may be setto different number with and/or for a different HARQ-ACK group. In slot5, TB 3 may be transmitted with a HARQ-ACK group index set to 1, acounter DAI set to 1, and a total DAI set to 4. In slot 7, TB 4 may betransmitted with a HARQ-ACK group index set to 1, a counter DAI set to2, and a total DAI set to 4. In the same slot, TB 5 may be transmittedwith a HARQ-ACK group index of 2, a counter DAI of 1, and a total DAI of3. In slot 9, TB 6 may be transmitted with a HARQ-ACK group index of 1,a counter DAI of 3, and a total DAI of 4. In the same slot, TB 7 may betransmitted with a HARQ-ACK group index of 2, a counter DAI of 2, and atotal DAI of 3.

According to embodiments, the WTRU may transmit an uplinkacknowledgement in a configured (e.g., scheduled, pre-scheduled,pre-determined, etc.) uplink slot. According to embodiments, in theuplink slot, the HARQ-ACK codebooks for HARQ-ACK group 1 and 2 may beincluded. According to embodiments, HARQ-ACK group indices may becarried explicitly. According to embodiments, the HARQ-ACK codebooks forHARQ-ACK group 1 and 2 may be carried in separate uplink slots.According to embodiments, a HARQ-ACK group index may be implicitlysignaled. For example, the HARQ-ACK group index may be signaled using aprocess ID and/or any other similar information. According toembodiments, HARQ-ACK grouping may be determined according toimplementation, e.g., designer implementation.

According to embodiments, certain criteria may be applied to a HARQ-ACKgrouping implementation. For example, there may be a case having a sameor similar resource allocations for data transmission. According toembodiments, in such a case, a HARQ-ACK group may be across multipleslots, for example, because slots with similar frequency resources mayexperience highly correlated channels. According to embodiments, in thecase of multi-spatial stream transmission with more than one CW, each CWmay or may not experience similar or correlated channels. In such acase, the two CWs may or may not belong to one HARQ-ACK, for example,according to designer implementation.

Dynamic HARQ-ACK Codebook with Countdown Indicator

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a HARQ-ACK codebook with a countdownDAI according to embodiments.

According to embodiments, a countdown DAI (which may also be referred toas a counter DAI) may be used for HARQ-ACK codebook signaling of a DLprocedure, as shown in FIG. 8 . According to embodiments, a WTRU mayreceive a DL data transmission with one or more code words (CWs).According to embodiments, each CW may have control information includinga countdown DAI for indicating the number of additional PDSCHs expectedafter this PDSCH. According to embodiments, the WTRU may decode the CWand keep the CBG level decoding results, for example, in a case whereCBG base transmission may be supported. According to embodiments, in acase where the countdown DAI reaches to 0 or a time period (e.g., apredefined, predetermined, maximum, etc., time for monitoring) isreached or expires, the WTRU may prepare the acknowledgement for thesaved PDSCHs.

According to embodiments, a total DAI indication may be included tosignal the number of TBs and/or PDSCHs the HARQ-ACK codebook may carry.For example, the total DAI indication may be included in the PUCCH whichmay carry the HARQ-ACK codebook. According to embodiments, in a casewhere the first several TBs and corresponding PDCCHs are missing, theWTRU may include a total DAI less than the real transmitted PDCCHs/TBs.In such a case, the gNB may know and/or determine that the first severalTBs/PDCCHs and corresponding DCIs were lost (e.g., were in error).

HARQ-ACK Codebook Design

Any of CBG level retransmission or multi-transport block (TB) aggregatedHARQ-ACK feedback may be supported. However, in the case of supportingCBG level retransmission or multi-TB aggregated HARQ-ACK feedback, aHARQ-ACK feedback payload may be large. For example, a single HARQ-ACKfeedback may include acknowledgement for M TBs, and each TB may have upto N CBGs. In a case where the HARQ-ACK feedback provides (e.g.,indicates, carries, includes, etc.) acknowledgements using a bitmap,which may also be referred to as any of a vector or a codebook, that isnot compressed, the bitmap may include M×N bits to provide the HARQ-ACKfeedback for the M TBs and the N CBGs. In such a case, for the m^(th)TB, the HARQ-ACK bitmap may be denoted as a vector A_(m)=[a_(m1) . . .a_(m)N]^(T), m=1, . . . , M, and each component a_(mn) may indicatewhether the n^(th) CBG in m^(th) TB is correctly decoded.

For example, in a case where the CBG is correctly decoded, thena_(kn)=1, or in other words, a_(kn) may be set equal to 1. In the casewhere the CBG is not correctly decoded, then a_(kn)=0, or in otherwords, a_(kn) may be set to 0. In a case where a CBG may not betransmitted, then the corresponding bit may be set to 1. For example, ina case where less than the maximum number of CBGs per TB is used, thebitmap may still include 1s for the CBGs not transmitted. That is, evenin the case of using less than the maximum number of CBGs, the bitmapindicating the HARQ-ACK feedback may be large having a size of M×N bits.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating HARQ-ACK codebook compression accordingto embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 9 , a CBG based HARQ-ACK codebook compression methodmay use (e.g., may need) N+2M bits for HARQ-ACK feedback. According toembodiments, three vectors may be as HARQ-ACK feedback, and may includeany of a TB HARQ-ACK bitmap, a TB valid bitmap, or a CBG HARQ-ACKbitmap.

According to embodiments, a first vector may be denoted as C1, may havea size M, and may be a TB HARQ-ACK bitmap. According to embodiments, them^(th) bit in the TB HARQ-ACK bitmap may indicate whether the m^(th) TBis correctly decoded. For example, C1 _(m)=1 if all the CBGs in m^(th)TB are correctly decoded and a TB level CRC is passed; and otherwise, C1_(m)=0 if any number of the CBGs in m^(th) TB are not correctly decodedor the TB level CRC is failed.

According to embodiments, a second vector may be denoted as C2, may havea size M, and may be a TB valid bitmap. According to embodiments, them^(th) bit in the TB valid bitmap may indicate whether the m^(th) TB isvalid. For example, C2 _(m) may be set to 1 (e.g., C2 _(m)=1) if one ormore CBG in the TB is correctly decoded. As a further example, in a casewhere all CBGs are not received correctly, C2 _(m) may be set to 0(e.g., C2 _(m)=0). According to embodiments, a valid TB may be definedaccording to the following equation TB_(Valid)={TB_(m)|C2 _(m)=1}.

According to embodiments, a third vector may be denoted as C3, may havea size N, and may be a CBG HARQ-ACK bitmap. According to embodiments,the n^(th) bit in the CBG HARQ-ACK bitmap may indicate whether then^(th) CBG in all valid TBs are correctly decoded. For example, C3 _(n)may be set to 1 (e.g., C3 _(n)=1) if (e.g., only if) the n^(th) CBGs inall valid TBs are correctly decoded. According to embodiments, thevector C3 may be calculated using a logic AND operation across all validTBs per CBG.

According to embodiments, a retransmission method may include acompressed HARQ-ACK codebook. According to embodiments, the threevectors C1, C2, and C3 may be received, for example, by a WTRU.According to embodiments, a set of TBs with TB={TB_(m)|C1 _(m)=1} may besaved (e.g., stored, written to memory) and the TBs may be considered ascorrectly received. According to embodiments, the set of TBs withTB={TB_(m)|C2 _(m)=0} may be retransmitted and all the CBGs in the TBsmay be considered as not correctly received. According to embodiments,all CBGs satisfying {CBG_(mn)|C1 _(m)=0 and C3 _(n)=0} may beretransmitted.

According to embodiments, in the case of the retransmission methoddescribed above, the number of CBGs that are retransmitted may beslightly larger than the number of CBGs that are (e.g., received) inerror. According to embodiments, base graph dependent CBG grouping (asdiscussed above) may be used in combination with the retransmissionmethod described above, and for example, CBGs in each TB may experiencesimilar or correlated channel condition. In such a case, the number of(e.g., unnecessary) retransmissions may be further reduced.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a retransmission method according toembodiments.

According to embodiments, a compressed HARQ-ACK codebook (e.g., thecompressed HARQ-ACK codebook design described herein) may be combinedwith procedures, methods, and features, for example, other than basegraph dependent CBG grouping, described herein. According toembodiments, a compressed HARQ-ACK codebook may be combined with adynamic HARQ-ACK procedure, for example, a HARQ-ACK procedure 1000described below with reference to FIG. 8 . According to embodiments, atransmitter (for example, a gNB) may group HARQ-ACK feedback accordingto (e.g., based on, using, etc.) beam criteria. For example, TBs andcorresponding HARQ-ACK feedback which are transmitted using one beam maybe grouped together. According to embodiments, a countdown DAI (CD_DAI)may be used. For example, a WTRU may perform a method including a CD_DAIprocedure. According to embodiments, at operation 1001, a WTRU mayreceive a packet including multiple TBs, for example, via (e.g.,through, over, using, etc.) a multi-stream transmission.

According to embodiments, a WTRU may check (e.g., determine) controlinformation for a (e.g., each, all) received TB. According toembodiments, at operation 1002, the WTRU may determine (e.g., consider,read, find, be indicated, etc.) any of the following control information(e.g., fields) corresponding to a (e.g., decoded) TB: (1) HARQ-ACK groupindex (HGID), for example, a HGID field may be used to indicate HARQ-ACKfeedback group, and the HARQ-ACK bits belonging to the same group may beprocessed and fed back together; and (2) CD_DAI, for example, a CD_DAIfield may decrease for each TB transmission, and when a CD_DAI equals 0(e.g., when the CD_DAI field reaches to 0) a WTRU may (e.g., need to)send HARQ-ACK feedback. According to embodiments, a CD_DAI field may beassociated with (e.g., may be dependent or based on) an HGID.

According to embodiments, at operation 1003, a WTRU may decode CBGs in aTB. According to embodiments, a TB HARQ-ACK bit may correspond to aCD_DAI. For example, a WTRU may determine (e.g., configure, calculate,prepare, etc.) a TB HARQ-ACK bit for C1(CD_DAI). According toembodiments, in a case where all CBGs are correctly decoded and a TBlevel CRC is passed, a corresponding TB HARQ-ACK bit may be set to 1. Ina case where one or more CBGs are not correctly decoded, a correspondingTB HARQ-ACK bit may be set to 0.

According to embodiments, a TB valid bit may correspond to a CD_DAI. Forexample, a WTRU may determine a TB valid bit for a CD_DAI correspondingto C2, that is C2(CD_DAI). According to embodiments, in a case where allCBGs are not correctly decoded, a corresponding TB valid bit may be setto 0. In a case where one or more CBGs are not correctly decoded, acorresponding TB valid bit may be set to 1. In a case where atransmission is missed, a TB valid bit corresponding to a missing CD_DAImay be set to 0. For example, in a case where a WTRU misses atransmission (e.g., the WTRU determines that a previously receivedCD_DAI—the received CD_DAI>1), the WTRU may set TB valid bitscorresponding to missing CD_DAIs to 0.

According to embodiments, a CBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap may indicate each CBGthat is correctly decoded. For example, a WTRU may determine aCBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap (e.g., ACD_Div) such that each bit in the bitmapindicates whether (or not) a corresponding CBG is correctly decoded.

According to embodiments, a C3 vector may be considered to be valid. Forexample, at operation 1004, a WTRU may determine (e.g., check) whether aCBG HARQ-ACK bitmap associated with the C3 vector is stored (e.g., theWTRU may determine whether CBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap_stored (C3) exists forthe HGID). However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, andthe WTRU may determine whether a C3 vector is valid according to anysimilar and/or suitable method. According to embodiments, for each HGID,any of the following may be initialized: a C3 vector, a variable M, aHGID timer. For example, in a case where CBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap_stored (C3)does not exist, a WTRU may initialize: (1) a C3 vector such thatC3=CBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap; (2) a variable M such that M=CD_DAI+1; and (3) aHGID timer. According to embodiments, in a case whereCBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap_stored (C3) exists, a WTRU may configure the C3vector such that C3=AND(C3, CBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap). According toembodiments a logical AND operation of two vectors may perform a logicalAND on each pair of components of each of the two vectors (e.g., C3 andCBG_HARQ_ACK_bitmap) and may return a vector with the same size.

According to embodiments, a CD_DAI may be (e.g., equal to) 0. Forexample, a WTRU may determine whether a received CD_DAI equals 0. In acase where a CD_DAI is zero, (e.g., a WTRU determines that a receivedCD_DAI equals 0), HARQ ACK feedback for multiple TBs may be generatedand fed back. For example, a WTRU mahy compress (e.g., generate,prepare) HARQ-ACK feedback for multiple TBs and may transmit theHARQ-ACK feedback. According to embodiments, the compressed HARQ-ACKfeedback may be used to determine CBGs that are not correctly decoded.According to embodiments, the HARQ-ACK feedback may include informationindicating any of (1) a HGID or (2) any of vectors C1, C2, or C3. Forexample, in addition to the HARQ-ACK feedback, a WTRU may provide (e.g.,include, transmit, etc.) a HGID and vectors C1, C2, and C3. In a casewhere a CD_DAI is zero, any of a stored CBG bitmap, a vector C3, or aHGID timer may be reset (e.g., may be initialized, zeroed, released,etc.). For example, in a case where a WTRU determines that a receivedCD_DAI equals 0, the WTRU may release any of CBG_bitmap_stored, C3, or aHGID timer.

According to embodiments, in a case where a CD_DAI is not zero, (e.g., aWTRU determines that a received CD_DAI does not equal 0), a WTRU maydetermine whether an HGID timer (e.g., a value indicated by the HGIDtimer) exceeds a threshold. According to embodiments, the threshold maybe configured, predefined, predetermined, etc. For example, thethreshold may be any of configurable and/or signaled by any of a networkor a base station (e.g., eNB, gNB, etc.).

According to embodiments, if the HGID timer exceeds the threshold, aremainder of TBs may be considered as lost (e.g., not received). Forexample, in a case where the HGID timer exceeds the threshold, a WTRUmay consider the rest of TBs to be lost and may setTB_HARQ_ACK(CD_DAI:0)=0 (e.g., may set C1(CD_DAI:0)=0) and may setTB_valid(CD_DAI:0)=0 (e.g., C2(CD_DAI:0)=0). According to embodiments,the WTRU may send (e.g., transmit, feedback, etc.) the HGID and vectorsC1, C2, and C3 back to the gNB. According to embodiments, in a casewhere the HGID timer exceeds the threshold, a WTRU may release any ofCBG_bitmap_stored, a vector C3, or a HGID timer. According toembodiments, if the HGID timer does not exceed the threshold, a WTRU maywait for more packets before performing (e.g., providing, transmitting,generating, etc.) feedback.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a retransmission method according toembodiments.

According to embodiments, a retransmission method 1100 may be asimplified procedure as compared to the retransmission method 1000 ofFIG. 10 . Referring to FIG. 11 , at operation 1101, a WTRU may receive aconfiguration, wherein a maximum number of CBGs per TB is N.

According to embodiments, at operation 1012, a WTRU may receive DCI witha CD_DAI. The CD_DAI field may be decreasing for each TB transmission,or in other words, may decrease in each subsequent TB transmission.According to embodiments, when the CD_DAI is zero (e.g., when the fielddecreases or reaches to 0, a WTRU may (e.g., need to) send the feedback.According to embodiments, the CD_DAI field may be HGID dependent.According to embodiments, at operation 1103, in a case where the CD_DAIis an initial CD_DAI, a variable M may be set to the initial CD_DAIvalue for HARQ feedback.

According to embodiments, at operation 1104, a WTRU may receive a TBwith CBGs, and the WTRU may decode the TB with CBGs corresponding to theDCI.

According to embodiments, at operation 1105, a WTRU may determinewhether the CD_DAI is 0. In a case where the CD_DAI is zero, atoperation 1106, the WTRU may compress HARQ-ACK feedback using thevectors C1, C2, C3. At operation 1107, the WTRU may transmit theHARQ-ACK feedback (e.g., the WTRU may send the compressed HARQ-ACK bitsback). According to embodiments, in a case where the CD_DAI is not zero,a WTRU may record the HARQ-ACK results and may continue to monitor for anext TB.

According to embodiments, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11, a CD_DAI may be utilized. However, the present disclosure is notlimited thereto, and a procedure similar to that as described above maybe used for any of a counter DAI or a total DAI, for example, with somemodification. According to embodiments, a CD_DAI decreases and a CD_DAImay be used as indices for vectors C1 or C2. According to embodiments,an increasing index may be calculated from a CD_DAI and a variable M maybe used as indices for the vectors C1 or C2. According to embodiments, aHGID timer may be used in a case where a TB with CD_DAI=0 is missed. Insuch a case, the HGID timer may (e.g., provide a mechanism to) allow aWTRU to feedback HARQ-ACK information within a given time slot.

UL CBG Based Transmission

In the case of CBG based uplink transmission, the retransmission andsoft buffer may be CBG based, but PDCCH signaling may be TB based.Accordingly, in the case of an LTE deployment, an LTE UL(re)transmission procedure may not be proper for CBG based(re)transmissions.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a UL CBG transmission procedureaccording to embodiments.

According to embodiments, as shown in FIG. 12 , a procedure for a UL CBGbased transmission with a grant may include the following operations.According to embodiments, at operation 1201, a gNB may transmit a grantfor a WTRU using a PDCCH. According to embodiments, the grant mayinclude any of the following information: (1) NDI, for example, thisfield may be used to indicate the grant is for a new transmission or aretransmission, wherein a fixed NDI or a toggled NDI mechanism may beused; (2) MCS, for example, modulation and coding scheme of the grantuplink transmission; (3) resource allocation; (4) number of data streamsand number of CWs; (5) RV; or (6) CBGTI, for example, indicating whichCBG is transmitted. According to embodiments, at operation 1202, theWTRU may receive the grant, and may determine any of: (1) a TB size tofit in the resources allocated with the targeting MCS; (2) a number ofCBs; or (3) a number of CBGs.

According to embodiments, at operation 1203, the WTRU may transmit aPUSCH with one or more TBs. According to embodiments, at operation 1204,a gNB may receive the PUSCH and decode it. According to embodiments, thegNB may record information indicating CBGs that are decodedsuccessfully. According to embodiments, at operation 1205, the gNB maytransmit a CBG based HARQ-ACK to the WTRU. According to embodiments, ina case where one or more CBGs are in error, the gNB may transmit a ULgrant to request a CBG based retransmission. According to embodiments,the information carried in the grant may be like the information carriedin the grant for the initial transmission. According to embodiments, theCBGTI may indicate one or more CBGs that are requested forretransmission. According to embodiments, at operation 1206, the WTRUmay retransmit the CBGs requested, for example, upon reception of the ULgrant. According to embodiments, the procedure may continue until allCBGs may be successfully detected.

Although features and elements are described above in particularcombinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that eachfeature or element can be used alone or in any combination with theother features and elements. In addition, the methods described hereinmay be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmwareincorporated in a computer readable medium for execution by a computeror processor. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage mediainclude, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), random accessmemory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices,magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks,magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, anddigital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with softwaremay be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a UE,WTRU, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.

Moreover, in the embodiments described above, processing platforms,computing systems, controllers, and other devices including theconstraint server and the rendezvous point/server containing processorsare noted. These devices may contain at least one Central ProcessingUnit (“CPU”) and memory. In accordance with the practices of personsskilled in the art of computer programming, reference to acts andsymbolic representations of operations or instructions may be performedby the various CPUs and memories. Such acts and operations orinstructions may be referred to as being “executed,” “computer executed”or “CPU executed”.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the acts andsymbolically represented operations or instructions include themanipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. An electrical systemrepresents data bits that can cause a resulting transformation orreduction of the electrical signals and the maintenance of data bits atmemory locations in a memory system to thereby reconfigure or otherwisealter the CPU's operation, as well as other processing of signals. Thememory locations where data bits are maintained are physical locationsthat have particular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organicproperties corresponding to or representative of the data bits. Itshould be understood that the exemplary embodiments are not limited tothe above-mentioned platforms or CPUs and that other platforms and CPUsmay support the provided methods.

The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable mediumincluding magnetic disks, optical disks, and any other volatile (e.g.,Random Access Memory (“RAM”)) or non-volatile (e.g., Read-Only Memory(“ROM”)) mass storage system readable by the CPU. The computer readablemedium may include cooperating or interconnected computer readablemedium, which exist exclusively on the processing system or aredistributed among multiple interconnected processing systems that may belocal or remote to the processing system. It is understood that therepresentative embodiments are not limited to the above-mentionedmemories and that other platforms and memories may support the describedmethods.

In an illustrative embodiment, any of the operations, processes, etc.described herein may be implemented as computer-readable instructionsstored on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable instructionsmay be executed by a processor of a mobile unit, a network element,and/or any other computing device.

There is little distinction left between hardware and softwareimplementations of aspects of systems. The use of hardware or softwareis generally (but not always, in that in certain contexts the choicebetween hardware and software may become significant) a design choicerepresenting cost vs. efficiency tradeoffs. There may be variousvehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or other technologiesdescribed herein may be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/orfirmware), and the preferred vehicle may vary with the context in whichthe processes and/or systems and/or other technologies are deployed. Forexample, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy areparamount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardware and/or firmwarevehicle. If flexibility is paramount, the implementer may opt for amainly software implementation. Alternatively, the implementer may optfor some combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments ofthe devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts,and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/orexamples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will beunderstood by those within the art that each function and/or operationwithin such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples may be implemented,individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software,firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. Suitable processorsinclude, by way of example, a general purpose processor, a specialpurpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors inassociation with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller,Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application SpecificStandard Products (ASSPs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), and/or a statemachine.

Although features and elements are provided above in particularcombinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that eachfeature or element can be used alone or in any combination with theother features and elements. The present disclosure is not to be limitedin terms of the particular embodiments described in this application,which are intended as illustrations of various aspects. Manymodifications and variations may be made without departing from itsspirit and scope, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Noelement, act, or instruction used in the description of the presentapplication should be construed as critical or essential to theinvention unless explicitly provided as such. Functionally equivalentmethods and apparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in additionto those enumerated herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the artfrom the foregoing descriptions. Such modifications and variations areintended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. The presentdisclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims,along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims areentitled. It is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited toparticular methods or systems.

It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for thepurpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intendedto be limiting. As used herein, when referred to herein, the terms “userequipment” and its abbreviation “UE” may mean (i) a wireless transmitand/or receive unit (WTRU), such as described infra; (ii) any of anumber of embodiments of a WTRU, such as described infra; (iii) awireless-capable and/or wired-capable (e.g., tetherable) deviceconfigured with, inter alia, some or all structures and functionality ofa WTRU, such as described infra; (iii) a wireless-capable and/orwired-capable device configured with less than all structures andfunctionality of a WTRU, such as described infra; or (iv) the like.Details of an example WTRU, which may be representative of any WTRUrecited herein.

In certain representative embodiments, several portions of the subjectmatter described herein may be implemented via Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs),digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other integrated formats.However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects ofthe embodiments disclosed herein, in whole or in part, may beequivalently implemented in integrated circuits, as one or more computerprograms running on one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programsrunning on one or more computer systems), as one or more programsrunning on one or more processors (e.g., as one or more programs runningon one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually anycombination thereof, and that designing the circuitry and/or writing thecode for the software and or firmware would be well within the skill ofone of skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subjectmatter described herein may be distributed as a program product in avariety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein applies regardless of the particular type ofsignal bearing medium used to actually carry out the distribution.Examples of a signal bearing medium include, but are not limited to, thefollowing: a recordable type medium such as a floppy disk, a hard diskdrive, a CD, a DVD, a digital tape, a computer memory, etc., and atransmission type medium such as a digital and/or an analogcommunication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wiredcommunications link, a wireless communication link, etc.).

The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates differentcomponents contained within, or connected with, different othercomponents. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures aremerely examples, and that in fact many other architectures may beimplemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense,any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality iseffectively “associated” such that the desired functionality may beachieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve aparticular functionality may be seen as “associated with” each othersuch that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective ofarchitectures or intermediate components. Likewise, any two componentsso associated may also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or“operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality,and any two components capable of being so associated may also be viewedas being “operably couplable” to each other to achieve the desiredfunctionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but arenot limited to physically mateable and/or physically interactingcomponents and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interactingcomponents and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactablecomponents.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singularterms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from theplural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as isappropriate to the context and/or application. The varioussingular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sakeof clarity.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if aspecific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such anintent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence ofsuch recitation no such intent is present. For example, where only oneitem is intended, the term “single” or similar language may be used. Asan aid to understanding, the following appended claims and/or thedescriptions herein may contain usage of the introductory phrases “atleast one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However,the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that theintroduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or“an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claimrecitation to embodiments containing only one such recitation, even whenthe same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “atleast one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or“an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”). Thesame holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claimrecitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introducedclaim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art willrecognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at leastthe recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,”without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or morerecitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a conventionanalogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in generalsuch a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the artwould understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one ofA, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where aconvention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, ingeneral such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill inthe art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at leastone of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that haveA alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be furtherunderstood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive wordand/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in thedescription, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplatethe possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, orboth terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood toinclude the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.” Further, the terms“any of” followed by a listing of a plurality of items and/or aplurality of categories of items, as used herein, are intended toinclude “any of,” “any combination of,” “any multiple of,” and/or “anycombination of multiples of” the items and/or the categories of items,individually or in conjunction with other items and/or other categoriesof items. Moreover, as used herein, the term “set” or “group” isintended to include any number of items, including zero. Additionally,as used herein, the term “number” is intended to include any number,including zero.

In addition, where features or aspects of the disclosure are describedin terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individualmember or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and allpurposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, allranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subrangesand combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easilyrecognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range beingbroken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths,tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein maybe readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third,etc. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all languagesuch as “up to,” “at least,” “greater than,” “less than,” and the likeincludes the number recited and refers to ranges which can besubsequently broken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, aswill be understood by one skilled in the art, a range includes eachindividual member. Thus, for example, a group having 1-3 cells refers togroups having 1, 2, or 3 cells. Similarly, a group having 1-5 cellsrefers to groups having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cells, and so forth.

Moreover, the claims should not be read as limited to the provided orderor elements unless stated to that effect. In addition, use of the terms“means for” in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 ormeans-plus-function claim format, and any claim without the terms “meansfor” is not so intended.

A processor in association with software may be used to implement aradio frequency transceiver for use in a wireless transmit receive unit(WTRU), user equipment (UE), terminal, base station, Mobility ManagementEntity (MME) or Evolved Packet Core (EPC), or any host computer. TheWTRU may be used in conjunction with modules, implemented in hardwareand/or software including a Software Defined Radio (SDR), and othercomponents such as a camera, a video camera module, a videophone, aspeakerphone, a vibration device, a speaker, a microphone, a televisiontransceiver, a hands free headset, a keyboard, a Bluetooth® module, afrequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a Near Field Communication (NFC)Module, a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit, an organiclight-emitting diode (OLED) display unit, a digital music player, amedia player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, and/orany Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) or Ultra Wide Band (UWB) module.

Although the invention has been described in terms of communicationsystems, it is contemplated that the systems may be implemented insoftware on microprocessors/general purpose computers (not shown). Incertain embodiments, one or more of the functions of the variouscomponents may be implemented in software that controls ageneral-purpose computer.

In addition, although the invention is illustrated and described hereinwith reference to specific embodiments, the invention is not intended tobe limited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications may bemade in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of theclaims and without departing from the invention.

1.-18. (canceled)
 19. A method for compressing hybrid automatic repeatrequest acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback bits performed by a wirelesstransmit/receive unit (WTRU) receiving a transmit block (TB) includingcode block group (CBG) data, the method comprising: receiving, by theWTRU, information associated with transmitting compressed HARQ-ACKfeedback information; receiving, by the WTRU, a TB; generating, by theWTRU, the compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information by compressingHARQ-ACK feedback bits associated with the received TB; and transmittingthe compressed HARQ-ACK feedback information.
 20. A wirelesstransmit/receive unit (WTRU) for receiving a transmit block (TB)including code block group (CBG) data and compressing hybrid automaticrepeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback bits, the WTRUcomprising: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver configured to:receive information associated with transmitting compressed HARQ-ACKfeedback information; receive a TB; generate the compressed HARQ-ACKfeedback information by compressing HARQ-ACK feedback bits associatedwith the received TB; and transmit the compressed HARQ-ACK feedbackinformation.
 21. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) fortransmitting and retransmitting a transmit block (TB) including codeblock group (CBG) data, the WTRU comprising: a processor, a memory, anda transceiver configured to: receive compressed HARQ-ACK feedbackinformation; determine a set of correctly received TBs satisfyingTB={TB_m|C1_m=1}; determine a set of incorrectly received TBs satisfyingTB={TB_m|C2_m=0}; retransmit TBs included in the set of incorrectlyreceived TBs; and retransmit all CBGs satisfying {CBG_(mn)|C1 _(m)=0 andC3 _(n)=0}.